Session 23 March 2013

[Voyageur]

Thank you PoB for the beautiful commentary about the ten virgins, I'm going to print it out. :)

Indeed, thank you PoB.

 

[obyvatel]

Perhaps what Becker (the author) and Socratis advice as to do, practice dying, has something to do with this oil we are supposed to be preserving/accumulating, considering how much energy we spend avoiding the one fact of this life: that we are going to die (or we will die to life as we know it)?

Avoidance of death has been discussed by Stoic philosophers. Epictetus (likely following Socrates) held that it is not death but our opinion and fear of death that causes us problems.

[quote author=Epictetus]
Reflect that the chief source of all evils to Man, and of baseness and cowardice, is not death, but the fear of death. Against this fear then, I pray you, harden yourself; to this let all your reasonings, your exercises, your reading tend. Then shall you know that thus alone are men set free.
[/quote]

From Marcus Aurelius
[quote author= Marcus Aurelius : Meditations]
If one sees death for what it is, and with the power of Intelligence strips away all its imaginary characteristics, one will then understand death to be nothing more than a natural process, and it is childish to be afraid of a natural process. Moreover, this is not only a natural process, but is for the well-being of Nature herself.
[/quote]


The starting point in the process of preparing for death may be this prescription

[quote author=Epictetus]
In everything which pleases the soul, or supplies a want, or is loved, remember to add this to the (description, notion): What is the nature of each thing, beginning from the smallest? If you love an earthen vessel, say it is an earthen vessel which you love; for when it has been broken you will not be disturbed. If you are kissing your child or wife, say that it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies you will not be disturbed.
[/quote]

 

[Muxel]

thorbiorn (and sitting),

Now that you mention it, it's curious that this parable is about virgins and oil for lamps, but ends with the "knocking on the door to Heaven" theme that is found in Luke.

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.'

When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

Then shall ye begin to say, 'We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.'

But he shall say, 'I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.'

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

(Why did the authors of the former use the analogy of "virgins with lamps"? What meanings were attached to this analogy that are lost to us in the present?)

Interesting that the Philokalia mentions the foolish virgins having given themselves over to envy, jealousy - the whole cocktail. Take a look at this from Ernest Becker:

By the time we get to man we find that he is in an almost constant struggle not to be diminished in his organismic importance. But as he is also and especially a symbolic organism, this struggle against being diminished is carried on on the most minute levels of symbolic complexity. To be outshone by another is to be attacked at some basic level of organismic durability. To lose, to be second rate, to fail to keep up with the best and the highest sends a message to the nerve center of the organism's anxiety: "I am overshadowed, inadequate; hence I do not qualify for continued durability, for life, for eternity; hence I will die." William James saw this everyday anxiety over failure and recorded it with his usual pungent prose:

Failure, then failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! . . . The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results. . . . And they are pivotal human experiences. A process so ubiquitous and everlasting is evidently an integral part of life.

We just saw why: because it is connected to the fundamental motive of organismic appetite: to endure, to continue experiencing, and to know that one can continue because he possesses some special excellence that makes him immune to diminution and death.

This explains too the ubiquitousness of envy. Envy is the signal of danger that the organism sends to itself when a shadow is being cast over it, when it is threatened with being diminished. Little wonder that Leslie Farber could call envy a primary emotional substratum, or that Helmut Schoeck could write a whole stimulating book about envy as a central focus of social behavior. The "fear of being reduced . . . almost seems to have a life of its own inside one's being," as Alan Harrington so well put it in a couple of brilliant pages on envy.

I am making this detour into phenomenological ontology only to remind the reader of the great stake the organism has in blowing itself up in size, importance, and durability. Because only if we understand how natural this motive is can we understand how it is only in society that man can get the symbolic measures for the degrees of his importance, his qualification for extradurability. And it is only by contrasting and comparing himself to like organisms, to his fellow men, that he can judge if he has some extra claim to importance. Obviously it is not very convincing about one's ultimate worth to be better than a lobster, or even a fox; but to outshine "that fellow sitting over there, the one with the black eyes"—now that is something that carries the conviction of ultimacy. To paraphrase Buber, the faces of men carry the highest meaning to other men.

As an aside, I remember once having my ego pricked by a squirrel. In order to fight off various insecurities, I had "lied to myself" with an illusory self-affirmation where I was everybody's superior in terms of talent, intellect, etc. One afternoon (on a sadistic impulse) I decided to prevent a squirrel from crossing a road. The squirrel made a start to the right, and as I moved to check it, it bounded off to the left and away. I felt outwitted, out-reflexed, by the squirrel. My self-importance was offended. From such situations I saw that "programs" - and the triggering of them - need not even be rational. Thus, automatons every last one of us.

Swedenborg on the subject of envy:

Particular envy is common to all, and most natural, for it is found even in little children, and in brute animals and their young. For example, we envy in another that which we ourselves love, as a lover the bride, and a competitor the honour of his rival ; so in other things, the envy never extending beyond the limit of that which we love and desire.

But a general envy arises from the supreme love of self. It envies all people, all things, and each one particular thing ; it imagines the universe its own and for itself, and itself as the whole and not a part. It envies others their heaven ; the devil envies even Deity his power. Thus at heart it is the enemy of all. But he who is not a lover of self, but generous, is not envious. From the description of hatred and anger, if these are compared, still further particulars may be derived [concerning envy].

The love of being near to God who is loved is the most eminently spiritual love, for it is in the very nature of love itself. Hence when there is pure love there is nothing of the love of being above one's companions, that is, no love contrary to the love for a friend. With this contrary love pure love has nothing in common. It does not reflect upon itself; but should it do so, lest there should come a desire of precedence over one's friend it would assign itself the lowest place of all. But God Himself is the One who exalts, and thus the love to be nearest to the beloved can exist without any desire of eminence ; wherefore it pertains immediately to the love of God, but not to the love of the neighbour as oneself. Then indeed the love of self wholly vanishes, and there arises a sort of contempt of self, on seeing oneself to be near to God and yet so infinitely distant from Him and to be almost nothing. Through Him alone has he any being, and the more in the degree that he is nearer to Him. When there exists this pure love, together with a love towards the neighbour, then there is an absence of jealousy if another is nearer to Him, and superior to himself; for then he loves the superior so much the more because he is nearer to God whom he himself loves. But indeed, if he does not look solely to love towards God, but regards also his own happiness, eminence, or love of self, then the love is not pure but mingled with jealousy. Envy ever presupposes something of love of self, of eminence among equals, and always reveals that it is so far distant from the love towards God.

Lastly,

Q: On many occasions you have said that the ideal thing is to have perfect balance of physicality and ethereality. This has been said on a number of occasions. Now, I don't understand how it can be that gratification of a physical body can be the mechanics by which one is entrapped? Is it not gratifying to look at something beautiful? Is it wrong, sinful, or a form of a fall, to look at beauty, to hear something beautiful such as music, or to touch something that is sensually delightful such as a piece of silk or the skin of a loved one? These various things that the human being derives pleasure from very often elevate them to a spiritual state.

A: Possession is the key.

Q: What do you mean?

A: In STS, you possess.

Q: That's what I am saying here...

A: If you move through the beautiful flowers, the silk, the skin of another, but do not seek to possess...

 

[Voyageur]

Perhaps what Becker (the author) and Socratis advice as to do, practice dying, has something to do with this oil we are supposed to be preserving/accumulating, considering how much energy we spend avoiding the one fact of this life: that we are going to die (or we will die to life as we know it)?

Avoidance of death has been discussed by Stoic philosophers. Epictetus (likely following Socrates) held that it is not death but our opinion and fear of death that causes us problems.

From Marcus Aurelius
[quote author= Marcus Aurelius : Meditations]
If one sees death for what it is, and with the power of Intelligence strips away all its imaginary characteristics, one will then understand death to be nothing more than a natural process, and it is childish to be afraid of a natural process. Moreover, this is not only a natural process, but is for the well-being of Nature herself.

The starting point in the process of preparing for death may be this prescription

[quote author=Epictetus]
In everything which pleases the soul, or supplies a want, or is loved, remember to add this to the (description, notion): What is the nature of each thing, beginning from the smallest? If you love an earthen vessel, say it is an earthen vessel which you love; for when it has been broken you will not be disturbed. If you are kissing your child or wife, say that it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies you will not be disturbed.
[/quote]
[/quote]

Your quotes are insightful reflections upon death. I've sat with dear friends in their final time and had those close go suddenly when not being there (a shock, the hardest). Being there for them, just being with them, holding their hand, reading a few pages or helping them with their immediate personal needs, was a deep lesson in helping to look upon our human transformation - preparing, listening, saying goodbye, yet somehow saying hello, this will be as it will be someday, too; it is our very "nature".

 

[sitting]

A: Possession is the key.

Q: What do you mean?

A: In STS, you possess.

Q: That's what I am saying here...

A: If you move through the beautiful flowers, the silk, the skin of another, but do not seek to possess...

This is another of the big ones. And in my mind perhaps even bigger than anticipation. Or envy.

For me, the most immediate relevance of possession is how it affects my thoughts and attitude towards my grown children. Thankfully I think I'm nearly home on that one. The various material things surrounding my life is the easy part. I can see through it.

 

[shellycheval]

Thank you POB for Nicoll's interpretation of the parable of the ten virgins and the discussion of the Language of the Parables.
It provides profound food for contemplation (in preparation for action!).
Observing the discrepancies in translations make me wish I could read the original texts in the ancient Greek.
shellycheval

 

[Soluna]

Thank you for sharing, as always. It's interesting to witness the pieces of the puzzle coming together.

 

[Ariadna]

I think it is difficult to anticipate or foresee the scope of possible cometary impacts. How can we be prepared for events of this magnitude, date uncertain, likely locations, I guess.
I wonder if our preparation will have to do with our knowledge of the reality of the world, the development of our personality, our consciousness ... our esoteric work.
If we think in terms of our 3D, will have time to prepare?

Maybe this post would fit better somewhere else, but this session, especially the closing comments, hit me quite hard. I always feel a kind of anxiety when I'm reminded of preparation, like I'm totally not doing enough to be prepared.

Spending a lot of time doing Uni work and other such things, when I'm pretty well convinced that the poop is about to hit the fan, feels like I'm living a total lie. Sometimes I think I should just drop out, learn some proper handy real life skills, and really get prepared for tough times and have something substantial to give to others. But then, despite the monotony of Uni and my job, they keep the money coming in. Enough to allow me good food, and books anyway, as well as both being opportunities for self Work.

Maybe I'm just being drastic here, but it feels like the universe is bringing out the bright neon signs and, although I'm paying attention, it just doesn't feel like I'm acting on these signs like I should.

Thank you for the session :)

Maybe ya'll can formulate some simple progressions of questions about what it really means to be "prepared"? I promise we'll do another very soon!!! It's just been hectic around here, one thing after another, and finally the taxes were all done after weeks of accounting data entry. So now, with the business out of the way, we can try to get back to normal, whatever that is. In short, another session soon, so let's get some good questions together about what "being prepared" really means. I have the feeling that it isn't what people usually think.

 

[dant]

Thanks PoB for the excerpts from Nicoll's, "A New Man".

I managed to find Nicoll's book in PDF, here

Attached is PoB review, as PDF, with slight enhancements.

 

[Drazen]

Thanks dant and PoB, for finding Nicoll's book and for the excerpts.

 

[France]

Thank you very much to translate this session. I very appreciate.

 

[Joanne]

First of all, thank you Laura and team for the session and C’s for your help! This is all so exciting and we are living it!!!

Why not consider that there may be opportunities presented after the “…doozie! And it has ‘friends!” to grow ourselves and opportunities to Serve Others thus helping ourselves and others grow as STO candidates to possibly reach that magic threshold of 51% before we hopefully open our own door to 4d? This means food and supplies for ourselves and if possible, for others. Not gather but spread out and share the knowledge we have accumulated to help the best we can and not worry about our own survival as we will have prepared ourselves via networking, reading, EE, diets, etc. to exit and enter 3d/4d the best we can with what time and effort we have been willing to put into this learning opportunity.

Is this possibly exercising the two parables, Wise Virgins (our accumulated knowledge within ourselves, our oil), Talents (fear, hide and hoard) but share?

I don’t know about all of you but yes, I will be scared ******, sad and excited at the same time. But remember, we have all opted for the short wave cycle and I am desperately ready for the wave and 4d thus, truth.

Ark, I look forward to your 'new door'.

 

[cliftonedward]

Thank you for the new post!!

 

[Divide by Zero]

Interesting session! Thanks for getting it on here so quickly!

One aspect of the wise and foolish virgins may be related to preparing for death/ a new world.

The C's mentioned that to graduate we have to learn "simple karmic lessons". A while back I was thinking about how the karmic wheel keeps spinning and spinning. This may be what keeps us latched here onto 3d STS, thinking that "next time" we will do things better, perhaps a perfectionism of the soul?

Maybe the simple karmic lesson is that we can't do everything absolutely right, but what matters is that we try our hardest to do things in a fair, STO-like way. That includes not feeding those who manipulate us.

Perhaps that is "getting the oil", to be prepared not to head back... to get things in order and not perpetuate this karmic hamster wheel we run in?

 

[Tristan]

In my opinion a very similar conclusion! Prepare for the death of oneself or others nearby, or the world as we know so far